League of Legends
League of Legends
YourPrincess drops out of Twitch Rivals amid drama, anger
Olivia Richman
As the Twitch Rivals’ League of Legends draft played out, League of Legends streamer Jayden “YourPrincess” Diaz was one of the eight captains putting together their team. This quickly led to an uproar within the LoL community as viewers and participants alike demanded that she be removed from the event. On January 11, YourPrincess announced her roster. But some members of it stated that they would drop out of the …
League of Legends
DRX vs. Afreeca Freecs: LCK Spring Split betting analysis
William Davis
The first week of the 2021 LCK Spring Split continues when DRX and Afreeca Freecs clash in a best-of-three match on day two. After an intense offseason, DRX and Afreeca are entering the 2021 LCK season as two dark horses. None of them are big favorites to go all the way for the title, but both have the individual power to score some big upsets. To start it off, they …
League of Legends
How will Pobelter and CLG do in the 2021 LCS?
William Davis
Counter Logic Gaming is not the organization it used to be. Ever since the franchising, CLG has only achieved one significant result, finishing third place during the 2019 Summer split. In the 2020 offseason, CLG invested big in two imports, but all eyes are on the man in the mid lane, Eugene “Pobelter” Park. The mid lane is what sets apart the teams in the LCS. While some organizations go …
League of Legends
After LCK and YouTube fail to agree, where to watch the 2021 LCK
William Davis
The 2021 LCK Spring Split is starting on January 13, and here’s everything you need to know about the new season. In 2021, the LCK is adopting a franchised model with ten teams competing in the league. The LCK is the last of the major regions to transition to this type of model. In order to be part of the new LCK, organizations had to go through an application process. …
League of Legends
Viego bug lets new LoL champion reach 40 attack speed
William Davis
New champions often come packaged with a lot of bugs and Viego is no exception. Viego is currently available for testing on the Public Beta Environment and players are already starting to find some ridiculous bugs on the new jungler. One of the most noticeable ones is the fact that Viego can reach over 40.00 attack speed by killing Kog’Maw over and over again. Every time Viego kills Kog’Maw and …
League of Legends
LoL players discover hilarious use for champion Viego’s passive
William Davis
Players are already starting to find some funny interactions using the newest champion Viego’s passive, Sovereign’s Domination. Viego has only been available for testing on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) for a few days, but his kit is already being explored and tested on full blast by dedicated players. One of the most surprising interactions is done through Viego’s passive, Sovereign’s Domination, where he is able to transform into a …
League of Legends
League of Legends removes division promos as Season 11 starts
William Davis
League of Legends has officially removed the division promotions in Season 11. The new ranked season started on January 8 and it brought a major change to the game. Starting in Season 11, the promo series between divisions are removed from the game. Players now will advance from one division to the next once they earn 100 LP. The promotions between tiers will remain in place for the foreseeable future. …
League of Legends
Full schedule for the 2021 LEC Spring Split revealed
William Davis
Fans waiting for the 2021 LEC Spring Split to kick off now know what to look forward to, as Riot has revealed the league’s full schedule for the first half of the year. With the major competitive leagues starting back up for 2021, the LEC is back after an intense offseason with a lot of new faces and old stars who have left for other regions. To start off the …
Here are the LCS Lock In groups and full schedule
William Davis
League of Legends
The 10 LCS teams are gearing up for the first-ever LCS Lock In tournament, a new event that kicks off the 2021 season. Here are the two groups and the format for the tournament. Not only will the 10 LCS teams get warmed up and test out their new rosters for the 2021 Spring Split start, but there’s also $150,000 on the line for the best team. Ahead of the …
Shezhen to host 2021 World Championship finals
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games announced Shenzhen as the destination for the 2021 World Championship final. In 2021, the World Championship is returning to China. This time, Riot is planning on executing the vision it had for 2020 that unfortunately couldn’t come to fruition due to travel restirctions around the world. Riot is planning a multi-city event that will end with the grand final in Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a modern city located in …
Riot Games announces esports circuits for TFT, Wild Rift, and LoR
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games announced its plan to launch a global competitive scene for League of Legends: Wild Rift, Teamfight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra. To celebrate the official start of Season 11, Riot hosted a broadcast where members of the team shared what’s to come in 2021. On the esports side, Riot shared part of its plans to invest more in the competitive scene for its three spin-off games. Wild Rift, …
Riot reveals new Lunar Beast skins and plans for 2021 LoL skins
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot revealed three brand new Lunar Beast skins and plans for the 2021 season during its opening day live stream. The new Lunar Beast skin line will include cosmetics for Fiora, Jarvan IV, and Alistar. The skins look to be released for the upcoming 2021 Lunar Event that is expected to go live on the servers with patch 11.2 on January 21. Alongside the skin updates, Riot also announced its …
Here’s a first look at new LoL champion Viego, the Ruined King
William Davis
News
During the season 2021 live stream, Riot gave fans a first look at the first new champion of 2021, Viego. The Ruined King is finally coming to League of Legends after years of waiting. Riot gave a first look at Viego through an intense cinematic, showcasing Viego as the next big villain in the Runeterra universe. Even though Viego will likely hit Summoner’s Rift in the very near future, only …
Riot Games accidentally leaks upcoming Dr. Mundo rework
William Davis
League of Legends
Dr. Mundo is the next champion to receive a rework with more news coming soon, but Riot Games accidentally posted the news before it should have been out. The accidental post by Riot was taken down shortly after it was posted, but League of Legends fans managed to copy the whole post, which is now floating around on social media. The new information shows how Riot is planning to keep …
Former G2 Esports jungler Trick is retiring, future unclear
William Davis
League of Legends
Former G2 Esports jungler Kim “Trick” Gang-yun has announced his retirement from professional play. Trick won’t be returning to the stage next spring, as the jungler said goodbye to his career through Twitter. “Bye pro-gamer life maybe esports life was really fun and I had good experience I will miss LEC, players, teammates, LCK, fans. I love you all you guys I hope you guys doing well,” Trick wrote. Trick …
League of Legends generated $1.75 billion in revenue in 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
2020 was a difficult year for many companies, but Riot Games managed to generate $1.75 billion in revenue through League of Legends alone according to SuperData. In a recent report by SuperData, it was discovered that League of Legends alone provided Riot Games with $1.75 billion in revenue on its own. This ranks LoL as number six over revenue from free-to-play titles in 2020 right behind Pokémon GO. Not only …
Teemo is unstoppable in ARAM after item removal
William Davis
League of Legends
Just when everyone thought that Teemo wasn’t the worst champion to face in League of Legends, Riot Games has made him impossible to deal with. Teemo’s reign of terror is back in full, thanks to the removal Oracle’s Extract from ARAM in patch 10.23. Oracle’s Extract granted true sight and obscured vision of hidden enemy units for five minutes. It allowed players to detect Teemo’s mushrooms on the map and …
Popular soloqueue streamer Dopa postpones Korean military service
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
South Korean streamer and League of Legends player Jeong “Dopa” Sang-gil has announced the postponement of his mandatory military service. In a YouTube video posted yesterday titled “I got military exemption…”, the 27-year-old explains that, while the video title is somewhat exaggerated and he is not completely exempt, he will be temporarily delaying his conscription to continue his streaming career. For Dopa and his fellow South Koreans, all males between …
Riot introduces LCS on-air team including Hai, Allorim, more
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2021 LCS season will be kicked off with a newly updated on-air team including some new and familiar faces. Riot recently introduced the complete on-air team for the LCS only a few days before the first-ever Lock In tournament kicks off. The team includes familiar faces from the 2020 season, as well as new additions such as Emily Rand, Barento “Razleplasm” Mohammed, and former professional players Hai “Hai” Lam …
The LCS reveals new rebrand ahead of 2021 season start
William Davis
League of Legends
Another big rebrand has been revealed just a few days before the 2021 competitive season officially kicks off. This time it’s from the biggest North American league, LCS. After years under the original LCS logo, the league is taking a turn in 2021 and starting off the year with a completely new look. The most notable change will be the new logo, where the LCS has moved in a completely …
League of Legends
is among the most popular widely-played video games in the world. It has been a consistent trendsetter in the gaming industry, whether as a model for other free-to-play titles looking to monetize their players or as a guiding light for how professional esports can be both successful and sustainable.
It hasn’t always been so though. League of Legends was released in 2009 as an uncertain new project, a game with large aspirations but little proven. In the years since, it has developed into the dominant title that it is today, and one of the biggest games on the planet.
League of Legends drives success of MOBA genre
League of Legends stands out in part because it may arguably be the very first original game released to truly fit into what we now understand to be the increasingly
popular MOBA genre. Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas are a very particular type of game genre that carry out competition between two opposing teams of players on a map. These games test a mix of competition, tactics, and quick reactions, a potent combination that has proven equal parts popular and durable over the years.
While League of Legends was certainly among the first full releases to focus on the genre and its new ideas, it wasn’t actually the origin point for any of it. That distinction belongs to
Blizzard release WarCraft 3,
and more specifically a modified game mode titled
Defense of the Ancients.
WarCraft 3 was a real-time strategy game that featured prominent hero units who could gain in power as they accrued experience points to level up their abilities, and gold to purchase powerful items. Defense of the Ancients was a
user-made game mode
which emphasized these heroes by giving each player control over one such character and teaming them up against an opposing squad of players. It was a dynamite success, inspiring myriad clones and, eventually, an entire genre of games.
But while League of Legends wasn’t the first to bring about these concepts, it was certainly
effective in executing on them. Early developers at publisher Riot Games had a clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish with the creation of League of Legends, and it would be hard to argue against their success given the runaway popularity achieved by their iteration on the MOBA formula.
LoL incorporates esports sustainably
Just as impressive as the long-term success of League of Legends as a game is the continued success of the title’s esports scene. While esports has known multiple peaks and valleys over the years, Riot Games has consistently managed to maintain the prominence of LoL esports. This has been accomplished through an emphasis on
regular regional play
and
sustainability.
Most esports and competitive games at the time used a circuits system, scattering major tournaments for the best teams across the year. Instead, Riot divided the world into separate playing regions. Each region has its own
competitive league
in which the best professional teams play weekly. The best teams in each league are then brought together for an
annual World Championship event
at the end of the competitive year. This allowed for domestic fan followings to develop across such regions as
Korea,
China,
Europe, and
North
and
South America. Fans would closely follow the teams in their region, and from that familiarity would feel invested in cheering them on when they clashed with teams from other regions at the game’s biggest international event.
This basic blueprint has continued to prove successful for Riot Games over the years, though it has expanded and been modified with time. In response to the success of the World Championship, Riot introduced a second international tournament in 2015, the prestigious
Mid-Season Invitational. In 2025,
First Stand
was added to bring LoL esports to three international events per year. Once again the scene was enhanced and this indirectly expanded the opportunities for
League of Legends esports betting. In the meantime, the regional leagues have spread out to include
more regions and lower levels, solidifying their identity.
The basic formula remains the same, however.
Encourage fan support on a domestic level, and then carry that support and interest over to
the global stage. It’s a formula that continues to power League of Legends esports, and looks set to enable it for many years yet to come.
At Win.gg, our coverage of LoL esports spans from the broader competitive updates and their impact on the scene to in-depth high-profile match previews with team analysis, head-to-head analysis,
LoL betting odds
sense-makers and predictions. All of these based on the insights of our experienced esports journalists.
